The Congress (I) leadership has accepted the only sensible course open to it in Maharashtra. It has, on the one hand, resisted the pressure for the removal of the present chief minister, Mr. Babasaheb Bhosale, and, on the other, obliged him to include most of the leading dissidents in his government. In the existing circumstances, it did not have much of a choice. It could neither change the chief minister without risking an Andhra-type confusion in the state, nor allow Mr. Bhosale a free hand in respect of the composition of his ministry without risking an aggravation of dissidence in the Congress (I) legislature party. But in the nature of things, the result is an uneasy compromise which can work only if Mr. Bhosale genuinely shows a spirit of accommodation towards his new cabinet colleagues and they stop sniping at him. The central leadership’s role will also be crucial. It can help stabilize the Maharashtra government if it frowns on indiscipline and factionalism. And it can promote instability if it continues to receive dissidents and in the process to enable them to create the impression that it is a matter of time before Mr. Bhosale is asked to step down. Of course, the chief minister must show the capacity to grow with the job. His denial notwithstanding, the fact remains that as recently as August 27 Mr. Pranab Mukherjee had, on Mrs. Gandhi’s behalf, secured Mr. Bhosale’s resignation. Which means that he has won a reprieve and that he must prove himself up to the job if he is to retain it.
The Congress (I) leadership has not been lucky in the choice of its chief ministers. It has had to remove three of them – Mr. Jagannath Pahadia in Rajasthan and Mr. T. Anjiah and Mr. B. Venkataram in Andhra. Another – Mr. AR Antulay – has had to quit in disgrace following an adverse judgement by the Bombay high court on charges of abuse of office to collect vast sums of money. Yet another – Mr. VP Singh in UP – had to resign apparently because he found it difficult to cope with the infighting in the party. And it is easy enough to name chief ministers who would be an embarrassment in any decent political set-up. This is apparently becoming a source of anxiety for the Congress (I) leadership for a variety of reasons. Elections are due to take place early next year in Andhra and Karnataka. The loss of even one of them, or indeed even a significant decline in the level of popular support and representation in the state legislature, can demoralize Congress (I) supporters and encourage its opponents. The party’s sagging morale and prestige cannot be revived so long as the performance of so many state governments remains as poor as it has been for over two years. This places the leadership in a fix. It cannot afford either to appear complacent or panicky. It cannot afford to sit idle and it cannot make too many changes at one go. It has to follow a middle course and hope that the people will bear with it. Perhaps they will, provided it is able to demonstrate its desire to put its house in order and give the states governments that work – reasonably honestly and efficiently.